An Introduction to Trigonometry

What are Sin, Cos and Tan?

Sine, Cosine and Tangent are functions, sitting them in the same family as familiar things such as product and sum. Their
abbreviations are Sin, Cos and Tan respectively. Each one lends itself to a different periodic graph:

Exponents: notation

We know that \((x+1)\times(x+1)=(x+1)^2\) but it's not so obvious where to put the exponent (in this case 2) when we have
\[\sin(x)\times\sin(x)\]
You'll rarely see it written
\[\sin(x)\times\sin(x)=\sin(x)^2\hspace{12 pt}\]
It is instead usually written as
\[\sin(x)\times\sin(x)=\sin^2(x)\hspace{12 pt}\]
This avoids confusion over what the exponent relates to.

Site created by Will Feavyour
Please credit NextLevelMaths.com if images or content are used.